#Maritime: Ferry fleets facing new demands over oil used on every voyage

A new EU regulation comes into force next year which will leave ferry operators facing a “huge task”, writes Martin Banks.

It means every ship in a company's fleet will have to produce a detailed report about the type and amount of oil used after every voyage.

The report also has to include the type and volume of cargo, the numbers of passengers transported, time spent at sea, distance sailed, and the oil used during the ship’s time in port.

Poul Woodall, director of Environment and Sustainability at DFDS, the leading ferry operator, said: “Unfortunately, this isn’t just a mind game. According to a new EU regulation, every ship calling at ports in the EU must report all this after each voyage, and then for the whole year. The company will have to do this for the entire fleet every year.”

In 2018, all ships must comply with this Monitoring, Reporting and Verification regulation (MRV).

Woodall added: “However, we must submit a so-called monitoring plan by 31 August this year. This plan must describe in detail how each vessel intends to collect, check, store and document all this information. The plan must describe each part of the process in detail, including a back-up procedure.

“With our huge number of voyages, this represents an avalanche of reporting and is a huge task. Therefore, we have purchased software to assist us with this.

“However, we still have some major hurdles ahead of us, such as splitting oil consumption between passengers and cargo on ro-pax vessels, and agreeing on converting fuel volumes to a mass figure.”

He said: “In addition to this, we need to agree on the appointment of independent, accredited verifiers to whom we can deliver our monitoring plan and in due course data for verification so that they can issue a compliance document. The verifier will probably be a company such as a class society, a quality assurance company or similar.”

Any vessel bigger than 5,000 GT entering an EU port after 30 June 2019 without this document of compliance will be subject to fines or may be refused entry.

Meanwhile, DFDS, which marked its 150th anniversary last December, has 6,800 employees spread over 20 countries, is supporting the fight against breast cancer, Europe-wide, with a new initiative.

Breast cancer is one of the most common forms of cancer among women, with widespread side effects to their families.

A company source said: “To make a big difference against such a challenge, we have activated a pink DFDS trailer as our first initiative.

“For every 10km it drives, DFDS will donate €1 to a research project fighting breast cancer.The pink trailer will do much more than carry cargo. It will help drive awareness and attention to the fight against breast cancer – as well as clearly showing the difference you are making.”

Its cross channel trade increased substantially last year, with a growth in freight volumes of 30% in  third quarter  of 2016.

It operates a daily schedule of sailings between Dover and Calais of up to 30 departures per day. Combined with DFDS’ three ferries on the Dover to Dunkerque route, DFDS is now operating the largest fleet on the Dover Strait, with up to 54 daily sailings to the two French ports.

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